The Los Angeles Kings are slipping into unmarked territory. After a shootout loss against the St. Louis Blues, a team that just beat them two games ago and will face them again as the next game on the docket, the Kings have dropped five games in a row. As the trade deadline remains slightly over 24 hours away, some of these gaping holes the Kings have shown might not be correctable with a big splash.
The defense looks lethargic, allowing zone entries and coughing up turnovers aplenty. The forward group looks rattled, offensively anemic, and physically pushed around for the majority of their five-game black hole. The goaltending has hung on by a thread, with the seams showing, but one of the only reasons the Kings aren’t getting blown off course entirely. Add that to the fact that the Division has come to a dead stop, and there are reasons why the panic button hasn’t been spammed.
Should it be spammed now?
I’ve previously written about how Darcy Kuemper is starting to show signs of wear and tear. That wasn’t the case against the Blues during the Kings’ first home game of their mini-playoff series against the rising, playoff-hungry team from St. Louis. Kuemper was solid, as if not for him this game never goes past regulation. The Blues held a 55.77% to 44.23% advantage on Corsi, and a xGF advantage of 2.66 to 1.45. Factor in the High Danger for percentages: 64.71 to 35.29 and you really get the picture of how important Kuemper was in the game.
The Kings were extremely fortunate to one: get a lead, and two: a point. Unfortunately for the Kings and Kuemper, his counterpart, Jordan Binnington, showed up in Four Nations form during overtime and the shootout.
For some positivity, Brandt Clarke was in the lineup after being a healthy scratch for four games. Clarke would log exactly 12 minutes, with 13 shifts total. Double the ice time from Clarke was given to Joel Edmundson, who arguably had his worst game in a Kings uniform. Pairing him with Drew Doughty was an eyesore against the Blues. Via NST, the pairing skated 16:23 together 5on5, and in the time, they had a 40% Corsi and a 32% Fenwick, outshot 11-3, and fortunately, only outscored 1-0.
Reality hurts. There are not many solutions for the Kings. Jim Hiller would have to be open to breaking up the Mikey Anderson-Vladislav Gavrikov pairing. In that case, it’s the only way. Jordan Spence would need to come back to stabilize the lineup, leaving Clarke in no-man’s land. It’s essentially a lose-lose right now for these Kings, and their past five show it.
Not a lot can be done for a flawed roster, despite the fact that it might be the best roster construct for Rob Blake’s tenure as general manager. The squad has a sterling reputation as one of the most difficult teams to play against; that’s also not something new. But this team is on track to have its lowest offensive production season in all its playoff seasons under Blake. It boils down to a roster that lacks bonafide superstar talent and game-breaking skill.
If you’re not going to score a ton, you can’t give up much. I don’t think that trying to play a different way is going to help us score more. I think we generate kind of as a five-man unit. I don’t think there’s one guy that just goes out and leads that charge by himself, so that’s a team game on offense.
– Jim Hiller, postgame against the Blues
It’s a fragile recipe that may hold together for a stretch or so, depending on the offensive output. That output has withered, and the Kings lack the secondary scoring to reinforce the drought caused by their primary guns. If the team cannot score, they cannot win, it’s as simple as that.
Probably as expected, but league sources confirm that Carolina has received clarity from Mikko Rantanen’s camp as far as not being ready to make a decision on the team’s contract offer by Friday’s trade deadline. Hence, Carolina talking to teams and seeing for real what the trade…
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 6, 2025
Moreover, their powerplay was ranked 11th last year with the same personnel (minus Pierre Luc Dubois). At 30th overall this season, I think some point-blank questions need to be asked of Newell Brown.
The conversation returns to the importance of this week, with the deadline evaporating away before our very eyes. They’ve been linked to the big names, but do big names jolt this team back some life, or is this just a poorly constructed roster with aging leaders of a past banner that is now over a decade old? Even if Blake could pull the trigger, what assets does he have? There’s not much.
These are concerning times in Los Angeles, with uncertain variables over a flawed roster positioning itself to fly off toward the playoffs with a broken wing. Playoffs? Remember when the team looked like an absolute lock?
The Kings will have to check over the shoulder the rest of the way.
#Kings #Spiraling #Playoff #Contender #Pretender #Exposed
